Taare Zameen Par' makes it to Oscars

Mumbai, Sep 21: Bollywood actor Aamir Khan's directorial debut ' Taare Zameen Par', a sensitive story of an eight-year-old dyslexia child, was selected as India's entry to the foreign language category for Oscars at the 81st annual Academy awards. Suneel Darshan, the noted filmmaker and who heads the Film Federation of India (FFI) jury announced this on Saturday, Sep 20 in Mumbai.

Written by Amole Gupte 'Taare Zameen Par' was released in 2007 and has received critical and Box Office applauds. The film did business of Rs 131 crore at the Box Office world-wide. Other films in fray for selection were critically acclaimed Marathi films 'Valu' and 'Tingya', Nishikant Kamat's 'Mumbai Meri Jaan', Neeraj Pandey's 'A Wednesday', Ashutosh Gowarikar's 'Jodhaa Akbar', Farhan Akhtar's 'Rock On!', Subhash Ghai's 'Black and White' and Telugu film 'Ghanyam'.

With Taare Zameen Par this will be Aamir Khan's second outing at the Oscars. His first home production 'Lagaan' made history in 2001 when it reached the final nomination list of the foreign film category. The awards ceremony will be held on February 22,2009. Chairman of the jury, Suneel Darshan said the committee members were unanimous in their decision to choose 'Taare Zameen Par' to represent India at the Oscars.

"It was a difficult choice as all the remaining eight films were extremely good. 'Taare Zameen Par' was favoured because of its universal theme," Sunil added. He said the Marathi films 'Valu' and 'Tingya' were highly praised by the committee for their excellent screenplay and treatment. Marathi filmmakers Mahesh Kothare, Ajay Sarpotdar, art director Bijon Das Gupta, filmmaker Aruna Raje, Ravi Kottarakara from Chennai were other prominent members of the jury, he said.